I’ve just started on a cruise knit — the kind of knitting where you can cruise through the day, thinking about things and, short of dropping a stitch, just keep going. This will be a cozy silk/mohair shawl from yarn purchased last year in Stockholm.
My reason for working on this today is because last night a very dear friend of mine died. She spent the last 15 or so years living with a dementia that robbed her of speech, reaction, the ability to smile, and finally, of everything that gives us “life.”
The last time we were together, she was still able to talk a little, but her desire was just that we spend time together in companionable silence. I still had my two cats at that time, and they parked themselves between us…Boomer next to Sally, and Pattycake next to me. Boomer always knew when someone needed him, and he stuck like glue to her the entire day, and slept on her bed that night instead of mine. The last thing Sally said to me was, “it’s ok.” That phrase was meant to convey everything we had left to say to one another. My heart is heavy today, particularly with grief over the amount of life she spent within herself — unable to talk to us, not knowing what was happening around her, in limbo. But I’ve also spent the day remembering so many, many things we did together, laughed about, dreamed about.
In addition to knitting, I’ve been watching a pair of Baltimore orioles visiting our deck. This is the first year I’ve seen them, and I’m so thankful that my friend Donna told me about their love of oranges. The first sighting was last week, so I didn’t think they would be back, even with the oranges tied to the railing, but they came back this morning. Somehow very appropriate since Sally was a big fan of the baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles.
In spite of this very somber day, I’m thinking of both my friendship with Sally and the arrival of the orioles as two magnificent gifts. It’s been quite a day.
I’m so sorry about Sally. I know what a good friend she was to you.